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Speaker 1: Buckle up and hold on tight. We got it for

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Speaker 1: you here. It is the Strawberry Letter, subject there's turmoil

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Speaker 1: in my congregation. Dear Stephen Shirley. Since you help everyone,

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Speaker 1: I hope you can help me too. I have been

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Speaker 1: the senior pastor of my congregation for thirteen years, and

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Speaker 1: lately I've been having a problem with an associate minister.

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Speaker 1: He is forty one years old and he is on

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Speaker 1: his fourth marriage now. His current marriage is in shambles

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Speaker 1: because he has left his wife and moved in with

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Speaker 1: one of the older sisters of the church. He told

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Speaker 1: his wife that he was leaving her, but none of

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Speaker 1: us in the church had any idea it would be

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Speaker 1: Sister Joanne that he moved in with. Joanne is fifty

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Speaker 1: six and single, and she knows this man is married,

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Speaker 1: and she knows his wife, but they are not close.

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Speaker 1: When things hit the fan a month ago, I offered

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Speaker 1: them both counseling and advise them that what they were

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Speaker 1: doing was wrong. I told sister that she is shacking

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Speaker 1: up with a married man, and I told him it

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Speaker 1: was to just leave his wife like that and to

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Speaker 1: cause her this kind of embarrassment. It has caused such

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Speaker 1: a big stir at the church that I had to

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Speaker 1: tell him that he could no longer preach there. Sister

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Speaker 1: joe Anne still comes to church like nothing has happened.

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Speaker 1: And this Sunday she stopped me after church and told

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Speaker 1: me she is very happy and they have plans to

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Speaker 1: get married as soon as he gets out of his

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Speaker 1: fourth marriage. This man can't keep a job and he

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Speaker 1: doesn't have anything to add to joe Anne's life. I

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Speaker 1: hope and pray if they don't think I'm going to

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Speaker 1: marry them. I don't know how to handle this type

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Speaker 1: of turmoil, so I have turned to you, Steve. What

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Speaker 1: do I do? I want to put them both out

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Speaker 1: of the church. Well, that's not a bad suggestion, Senior pastor,

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Speaker 1: that is not a bad suggestion. You are the senior pastor,

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Speaker 1: which means you're the leader of the church. You're the shepherd.

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Speaker 1: You know, supposedly what you say goes. You have a

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Speaker 1: staff of ministers. You guys, can you have one of

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Speaker 1: those meetings and you can talk about this situation, because

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Speaker 1: if it's causing turmoil and division in your church, that's

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Speaker 1: not a good thing. Okay, you have a direct line

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Speaker 1: to the Lord. You were called by God. So you

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Speaker 1: need to pray seriously about this situation and ask him

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Speaker 1: how you should handle it. If you don't put them

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Speaker 1: out of the church, you can certainly sit him down

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Speaker 1: and not let him preach anymore as associate minister. And

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Speaker 1: does he know the Bible? Is he reading it at all?

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Speaker 1: There's stuff in there about what he's doing. It's in

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Speaker 1: the Bible, okay. And he's in the church and preaching

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Speaker 1: to people. This is his fourth wife, no, his fourth marriage,

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Speaker 1: and he's working on number five now. If he reads

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Speaker 1: the Bible, I think one of the scriptures says a

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Speaker 1: man who doesn't work shouldn't eat. You say, this man

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Speaker 1: can't keep a job. What is he going to offer,

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Speaker 1: Sister Joanne? What is he offered his wife, his current

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Speaker 1: wife and all these other women. Yeah, you need to

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Speaker 1: sit him down. This is on you, senior pastor. It's

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Speaker 1: your church, okay. Like I said, you are the leader

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Speaker 1: of this congregation. You have to get your members in line, okay.

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Speaker 1: Your responsibility part of it as a pastor is to

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Speaker 1: teach the Bible, okay. And this stuff is in there.

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Speaker 1: So you need to do some more studying, I would suggest,

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Speaker 1: so you can hear from the Lord and see what

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Speaker 1: he'll tell you about handling this situation. Put them out,

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Speaker 1: sit them down, all of those things, pray for them,

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Speaker 1: do not. I'm with you. I don't think you should

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Speaker 1: marry them at all. I hope they don't even ask you.

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Speaker 1: If they don't understand what they're doing wrong, there's a problem.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they're breaking ten commandments. I mean, it's so

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Speaker 1: much sin going on here. You know, this is crazy,

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Speaker 1: and you got to sit them down and tell them

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Speaker 1: right from wrong. Don't they know right from wrong? Because

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Speaker 1: they certainly don't act like they do. And it's on you. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you want to put them both out of the church,

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Speaker 1: you probably he should because they're not listening to you.

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Speaker 1: They're not and it's not coming from you. You're the

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Speaker 1: vessel from the Lord, all right, Jack put him out

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Speaker 1: the church. The vessel put him out the church. Put

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Speaker 1: him out the church, division and turmoil. Pastor's job is

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Speaker 1: to pastor. His job it is to pastor. Pastor means

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Speaker 1: to look over, governing everybody in there. The one phrase

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Speaker 1: that I really remember him in the Bible that really

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Speaker 1: stands out to me is judge not huh. Let she

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Speaker 1: be judged Jesus hung out with thieves, liars, murderers, backsliders.

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about the disciples. He hung out with them. People.

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Speaker 1: Who are you to judge a man that's happy with

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Speaker 1: an older Who are you you crazy man? Who are

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Speaker 1: you to judge a man that has found some happiness

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Speaker 1: older woman? Judge not Pasta said the man has been

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Speaker 1: married ten thousand man had been opened the book, and pasta,

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Speaker 1: that's what you need to do, and passed. Open the

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Speaker 1: book and passed, Jay, there is such thing as right

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Speaker 1: and wrong, and you know that open the book. I

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Speaker 1: don't think I don't think he's doing that. Though I

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Speaker 1: didn't think he's opening the book. I really don't. That's

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Speaker 1: what you need to do, past because they wouldn't look

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Speaker 1: and passed. They would even at least know better if

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Speaker 1: he was doing open, said the man and passed ignorant.

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Speaker 1: All right, listen, we'll be back. We'll come back and

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Speaker 1: hear from the young one on the team. Junior. We'll

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Speaker 1: hear from Tommy as well. Subject there's turmoil in my congregation.

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Speaker 1: This letter was written by the senior pastor. He's been

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Speaker 1: the senior pastor for thirteen years. Lately, he's having a

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Speaker 1: problem with his associate associate minister. Associate minister forty one

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Speaker 1: years old, has been married four times, getting ready to

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Speaker 1: leave his fourth wife and hook up with one of

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Speaker 1: the older sisters in the church. He has left his wife.

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Speaker 1: He has moved in with his older young lady. Like

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Speaker 1: I said the associate pastor forty one years old, he's

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Speaker 1: moving in with Sister Joanne, who's fifty six and single.

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Speaker 1: Sister Joanne knows his wife, they are not close. Senior

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Speaker 1: Pastor in the meantime has told them both advise them

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Speaker 1: that what they're doing is wrong. Shacking up with a man,

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Speaker 1: she told Sister Joanne is not what she should be doing.

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Speaker 1: This man can't keep a steady job, he has no

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Speaker 1: plans to help you during the marriage, and what are

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Speaker 1: you marrying him for? And Sister Joanne, she's saying it

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Speaker 1: is just clueless. She's just told her that she's so

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Speaker 1: happy and she can't wait till he gets out of

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Speaker 1: his fourth marriage so he can marry her. And pretty

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Speaker 1: much that's where we are. And the senior pastor says

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Speaker 1: he or she doesn't know how to handle this, and

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Speaker 1: she wants to put both of them out of the church.

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Speaker 1: I said, yeah, go ahead and put both of them

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Speaker 1: out of the church, or at least sit both of

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Speaker 1: them down. And Jay said, judge not and and the

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Speaker 1: senior pastor is a leader and the shepherd of the church.

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Speaker 1: So I mean, you know, instruction comes from God and

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Speaker 1: he passes out on to the congregation. They're not listening

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Speaker 1: to him. I'm with Jay, past but he is an

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Speaker 1: opportunity to grow our congregation. See, he's missing an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to grow. I know it's term more, but there's opportunity internal.

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Speaker 1: See would you need to open that book and pass

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Speaker 1: and your sermons should be about them too, because everybody

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Speaker 1: in there. No. And so I came up with some

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Speaker 1: sermon tyler, you can speak on uh huh such ass

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Speaker 1: shocking up and stepping out. This this sermony here today

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Speaker 1: is shocking up and stepping out. Or this one might

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Speaker 1: work too. Uh this morning, I want to come to y'all.

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Speaker 1: We're talking about h cheating in the next pew. Yeah yeah,

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Speaker 1: in the next pew. Uh how about this? Uh, my man,

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Speaker 1: your husband, this is some sermon tyler he can use. Hell.

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Speaker 1: I like this with two jese bells, stay close. We

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Speaker 1: got some servon holder. He got another with two. If

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Speaker 1: you're taking Loland, now wait until tonight. Yeah, here's another one.

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Speaker 1: You got too up Solom and Mora in your home. Yea.

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Speaker 1: And the last sermon I think he could probably preach

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Speaker 1: on that a probably effective grown this congregation. Another woman trash,

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Speaker 1: he's another woman's treasure. Let me add that. Come on,

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Speaker 1: if loving you a wrong, come on, he's just looking

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Speaker 1: at it wrong. Yeah, he's looking at it room. Talk

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Speaker 1: about the term one in your congregation. I agree with you, guys.

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Speaker 1: I definitely think it's the pastor because he's the leader.

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Speaker 1: All right, come on, nephew, with another sermon. Excuse me

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Speaker 1: about wood. This is Dick Dupcham in the building. Yea, Pastor,

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Speaker 1: you are dealing with a pull pit. Oh I said

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Speaker 1: it right, that pull pit. How you are dealing with

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Speaker 1: somebody that's looking for Bible belt booty, that's what you're

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Speaker 1: looking about. You're looking for somebody and look at the

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Speaker 1: Bible belt, but searching and lurking for Hallelujah helps. That's

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Speaker 1: what you're looking at. Usher Russia. That's who you're dealing with.

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Speaker 1: That's what you got in your acquire desierer. That's what

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Speaker 1: you have that you're dealing with. Okay, your church has

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Speaker 1: been contaminated with a pull pit how and I'm just

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Speaker 1: saying right now he carries a virus call in b V.

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Speaker 1: What's up in b VS? New booty virus? He is

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Speaker 1: just he he loved his new booty. Ain't nothing like

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Speaker 1: new booty. Ain't no booty like a new booty booty

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Speaker 1: because a new booty booty. I don't stop new booty.

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Speaker 1: The problem virus NBB it's new booty virus. He see

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Speaker 1: what is going on is missus Joe Ann is new booty.

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Speaker 1: That X that wife, that that wife he's been with.

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Speaker 1: That's old booty. But now he's got new booty. But

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Speaker 1: what Joe and him not done? This does the math

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Speaker 1: on all the old bootists. You won't be lone, miss

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Speaker 1: Joe m before you will be a new booty. And

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Speaker 1: an old booty is right around. Not only you new

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Speaker 1: booty now old booty lady, it's on the way. All

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Speaker 1: new bootis stand Please new boots new booty. I don't

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Speaker 1: know where y'all fall in. You fall in when you

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Speaker 1: fall in, Shirley and Colin, keep my name out of

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Speaker 1: this y. When I when I speak on your booty

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Speaker 1: bring it up now, all right, but the new booty

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Speaker 1: is is the problem. But old booty is shall come jam. Okay,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much. Cut me off in the middle

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Speaker 1: of a Buddhist piece. You can email us your Instagram

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Speaker 1: what's your thoughts on today's Strawberry Letter and Steve Harvey

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Speaker 1: f M. Or you can check out the Strawberry Letter

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Speaker 1: podcast fun demand. Okay, you're listening to the Stame Harvey

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Speaker 1: Morning Show.